Re: DASD FC 4326 15k RPM in Model 270-2248 with 2763 controller and V5R1M0 - any chance? + IBM vs. Seagate disks? -- MIDRANGE-L

Do not do this. Do not pass go. Do not collect the smoke that will come out of the machine.

All 15K RPM disks are too high power draw for 270 CEC or sidecar and will report in as DT 6900 or some such "unrecognized device".

Of course I tried this in Frankie III and he complained a lot for the minutes they were in there. When I asked friends in high places they asked "They are not still in there correct???" in a rather earnest tone of voice.

You CAN attach an 0595 or 5095 and put 15K RPM disk units that and those are supported there.

Biggest IN the 270 itself are the FC #4319 10K RPM 35G units.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 1/24/2014 6:20 AM, Joerg M. Sigle wrote:

Hello all.

As I'm new on the list: I'm from Europe, happened to get an iSeries Mod. 270-2248 with OS version V5R1. I've had only a bit of experience with AS/400 some years ago, but am computer literate. I've already found helpful information in this list - so thanks to David for running it, and to all others for being there!

Now I've got a question:

Has anybody *tried* whether the Mod. 270-2248 would accept disks beyond the FC 4319 / CCIN 6719?

Specifically, FC 4326 Seagate Model Number ST336753LC 35 GB 15k RPM drive?

Or is it perfectly clear that this will not work?

I've seen some sources indicating V5R2 would be needed for that.
And even that an external tower with a new controller might be required.

I'm still asking because I've been offered a set of these drives.

As I understand it, an upgrade to V5R2 would probably not be feasible;
and an additional tower definitely.

[Naive question: Could one simply patch a file / or the firmware of the disks, like the drive ID string - to make the machine accept them?]

Another related question: I was wondering about Hitachi Ultrastar 10k RPM HUS... disks I've seen on ebay as Feature 4319. Does anyone know how they compare to the Seagates, re. noise and (remaining) reliability?

After all, these appear to be 3-4 yrs younger. However, for IBM Hitachi ICL35... I remember them having been called "notorious", and also having seen one fail in an SGI Octane after hours, where two Seagates had survived for years before. So I would probably prefer the Seagate disks right now.

Details:

My machine has early Mod. 270 hardware. Disk subsystem is 2763-6717; i.e.:

2763-001 Controller
6717-074 x 4 HDUs; each ~ 8 GB, 3x Seagate, 1x IBM Ultrastar

The IBM disk is currently reported as "pre-fail" both in the iSeries, and on a PC SCSI controller.
(Used that to make image backups of all 4 disks.)

That causes "NON-PROT" status for the other 3 disks; i.e. RAID functionality is currently off.
Nevertheless, the machine works, has booted fine multiple times, and uses all disks equally.

The one IBM disk is also *much* louder. It has a rather large grown defects table, but even it's manufacturer supplied defects table had been *much* larger than those of the Seagate drives for a start. I've also read that the IBM iSeries drives were somewhat notorious for failing.

So I would like to replace the 4th disk - or upgrade them all.

I found that the 4317=6717 (8 GB, as is), 4318=6718 (18 GB) or 4319=6719 (35 GB) 10k RPM Disks
of Seagate origin *might* be the last ones that my V5R1 system would accept.

The following PTFs are installed (among many others):

MF27488 (2036) Serviceability Updates for 6717, 6718, 6719.
11-28-01 Incorrout-Disk-HLIC 6717 6718 6719
I don't understand what the (2036) means in this PTF description.

This is the newest PTF installed:
MF27704 SPT: Incorrout-HLIC-94xx DISK
14-03-02 APAR corrigé: MA24666

Interestingly, one of the references below mentions:

MF27706 Changes to support downloading of new code for 67xx DASD.

I was wondering whether *that* might possibly enable the use of newer disks as well?
Apart from the fact that this PTF is probably not on my machine yet.

References:

http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/201110/msg00297.html
"You will also get the type 6600 if you put in iSeries drives that are not supported in the 270 frame (such as the 15K RPM units for example.) If the FC of the drive isn't on the 'approved list' it's not usable."

http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/200202/msg01580.html
(Info regarding the above PTFs)

http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh011402-story2.html

Thanks a lot for your reading time, and for any input of yours.
Even if you just say: "forget it" :-)

Kind regards! Joerg